1 obsidian/newsjournals A collection of some of the newsjournals and features journals I wrote for Harker journalism.
Headline: Astronomers Find What Might Be the Most Distant Galaxy Yet Byline: Dennis Overbye Date of Publication: April 7 2022 Source: NYT Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/07/science/astronomers-distant-galaxy.html
Astronomers have discovered the farthest and oldest object yet, dubbed “HD1.” With measurements from radio telescopes, they determined that HD1 existed only 330 million years after the big bang, or over 13 billion years ago. Most likely a galaxy of some sort, HD1 was discovered alongside a younger object called HD2. There are plans of using the James Web Space Telescope to further study HD1 and confirm the redshift measurements, where astronomers determined that light from HD1 was stretched to 14 times its original wavelength. This discovery comes right after the Hubble team found a star from 900 million years after the big bang, which they named Earendel.
Space is cool and I was really surprised to learn the light stretched 14 times longer. What will the JWST discover, and when will we find something older?
Headline: Shehbaz Sharif Becomes Pakistan’s Interim Prime Minister Amid Turmoil Byline: Salman Masood and Christina Goldbaum Date of Publication: 2022-04-11 Source: NYT Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/11/world/asia/pakistan-shehbaz-sharif-prime-minister.html
Shehbaz Sharif has replaced former prime minister Imran Khan, who was outed in a vote of no confidence on Saturday. Sharif was appointed interim prime minister by two votes to achieve a simple majority in parliament, with Khan’s party boycotting the vote. He is also brother of three time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, though his family has been accused of corruption and other graft. The former prime minister, Imran Khan, used to be a cricket star and was voted out after he lost favor with military officials. Defying the constitution, Khan had tried to dissolve the parliament in an effort the block the vote.
I had heard about Pakistani politics being weird and I wanted to learn more. Why is it so hard to keep a prime minister for a full term?
Headline: A College Fights ‘Leftist Academics’ by Expanding Into Charter Schools Byline: Stephanie Saul Date of Publication: April 10, 2022 Source: NYT Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/10/us/hillsdale-college-charter-schools.html
Hillsdale college in Michigan is sponsoring public charter schools across the country, with governor Bill Lee of Tennessee sponsoring 50 new schools with $32 million of public funds. The college is frequented by top conservative leaders, and it created a so-called “1776 Curriculum” for history which aims to fight “leftist academics.” This history curriculum has been criticized for its overt political message in criticizing the New Deal and Great Society while discrediting global warming. In Atlanta, Hillsdale has sponsored Atlanta Classical Academics, a K-12 charter school with a focus on Greco-Roman culture in the pursuit of the “enduring Great Conversation of Western civilization.” In a city that is 73% black, Atlanta Classical’s student body is only 17% black.
The headline was interesting and I was curious about what was being taught elsewhere. How do you think our curricula compare against this ‘1776 Curriculum’?
Headline: Archeologists discover historical artifacts during Notre Dame Cathedral restoration Byline: Jeff Dean Date of Publication: April 16, 2022 Source: NPR Link: https://www.npr.org/2022/04/16/1093200949/notre-dame-cathedral-artifacts-found
Archaeologists have discovered a human-shaped lead sarcophagus under the floor of Notre Dame, and it is presumed to be of an important elite figure, as being buried near the church choir is considered a great honor. As the cathedral is being restored, they were allowed to excavate certain areas under the church, and previously they had rediscovered sections of a 1230 rod screen wall that was destroyed in the late 1600s. This new sarcophagus is presumed to be from the 14th century, and a camera sent inside was able to see plants and other organic remains, indicating that the contents were well preserved.
We went to Paris the summer after the Notre Dame fire and I was curious about the new discovery. What other secrets lay hidden in our cities?
Headline: A YouTuber Purposely Crashed His Plane in California, F.A.A. Says Byline: Eduardo Medina Date of Publication: 2022-04-20 Source: NYT Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/20/us/trevor-jacob-youtube-plane-crash.html
The FAA has revoked Trevor Jacob’s private pilot’s certificate after he posted a video titled “I Crashed My Plane,” which has since garnered 1.7 million views. In the video, the former Olympic snowboarder turned YouTuber jumps out of his single-engine plane after claiming that the engine malfunctioned. Immediately after the video was posted, aviation enthusiasts expressed doubts that Mr. Jacobs flew with a parachute in the first place and of the fact that he never made an attempt at recovering the engine or emergency landing. Later in the video, Jacobs shows the mangled wreckage in the Los Padres National Forest and claims that he had to hike for six hours to find help. Although the FAA cannot prosecute, they can impose a $1,644 fine for each day Jacobs does not give up his license due to crashing the plane in a “careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life or property of another.”
I saw the controversy surrounding that video when it had originally come out and thought it was nice that the FAA is doing something. What lengths are people willing to go to in order to get views.
Headline: Dozens of Bald Eagles Have Died From Bird Flu Byline: Sabrina Imbler Date of Publication: April 21, 2022 Source: NYT Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/science/eagles-bird-flu.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Science
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has reported 41 dead bald eagles infected with the novel H5N1 strain of bird influenza, which had appeared in Canada December of last year. Overall, 763 wild birds have been reported as infected, with reports from South Dakota, North Carolina, Florida, Minnesota, and Ohio. Bald eagles are especially hard hit because spring is their nesting season, and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources reported that nesting success has been down 30% from last year. There is concern that this new virus would mutate and recombine with other viruses to become endemic, but it seems this virus is not a threat to people, as no infections in humans have been reported.
I chose this article because of a certain ongoing global pandemic. How concerned should we be?
Headline: Ruins of an ancient temple for Zeus were unearthed in Egypt Byline: Associated Press Date of Publication: April 25, 2022 Source: NPR Link: https://www.npr.org/2022/04/25/1094730176/ancient-egypt-temple-zeus-archaeology
Archaeologists have uncovered the ruins of an ancient temple to Zeus in Tell el-Farma in Egypt. Tell el-Farma was known in Roman times as Pelusium and is located in the northwest of the Sinai Peninsula. So far, excavation has unveiled two collapsed granite columns at the entrance of the temple, which appears to have been damaged in an ancient earthquake. Specifically, an inscription credits Hadrian with renovating the temple and dedicates it to Zeus-Kasios, a version of Zeus associated with Mount Kasios in Syria. Evidence pointing to the existence of this temple had been found in the early 1900s by Jean Clédat, who discovered Greek inscriptions referencing the temple.
I chose this article because I am a Latin nerd and I thought it was a cool discovery. What is the significance of this temple? What can we learn from it?
Headline: Millions of Bees Bound for Alaska Are Rerouted and Die in Atlanta Byline: Isabella Grullón Paz Date of Publication: April 28, 2022 Source: NYT Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/28/us/honeybees-died-atlanta-airport-alaska.html
800 pounds of honey bees died after being left outside in the heat last Friday. Sarah McElrea, a beekeeper from Alaska, had hired Delta Airlines to fly the 200 crates of bees from Sacramento to Anchorage, but the bees didn’t fit on board the original flight. Thus, the bees were rerouted through Atlanta, where they were delayed once again. However, with a suspicion that some bees were escaping from the crates, the bees were moved outside from their special cooler and into the 83-degree heat. During the move, it appears that the crates were placed upside-down, cutting the bees off from their food source of sugar water and resulting in the majority’s death. The loss of $48,000 was not covered by insurance, and McElrea is trying to get Delta to reimburse her.
That’s a lot of bees. Will McElrea get reimbursed? How did this happen, and why did nobody notice what was happening?
Headline: A longer life for Diablo Canyon? Newsom touts nuke extension Byline: Michael R. Blood Date of Publication: April 29, 2022 Source: AP News Link: https://apnews.com/article/business-environment-california-gavin-newsom-canyons-569f9b630a31b75ea1e80f0854679faa
Governor Gavin Newsom proposed extending the lifetime of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, the last of its kind in California, past 2025 in the face of possible electricity shortages. By offering PG&E a share of the $6 billion of federal funding that Biden has dedicated to nuclear power, Newsom hopes to maintain the plant as a temporary solution, maintaining that in the long term, he plans to fully transition to non-nuclear renewable energy sources. With this, the debate about the plant’s safety has been reignited, especially due to its proximity to a fault line, which runs less than a kilometer from the reactors. Additionally, another underwater fault line discovered 3 miles offshore required the plant to undergo an expensive retrofit before it had even generated any electricity.
The headline “Newsom touts nuke extension” confused me, but the article was still interesting. Do you think nuclear is the future? How can we make nuclear energy better/safter?
Headline: Where Lawns Are Outlawed (and Dug Up, and Carted Away) Byline: By Henry Fountain; Photographs by Joe Buglewicz Date of Publication: 2022-05-03 Source: NYT Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/03/climate/las-vegas-lawn-grass-ban.html
In light of the current drought, “nonfunctional” lawns across Nevada are being replaced with desert-scaping under a law (Assembly Bill 356) passed last year. Experts estimate that Nevada may be able to save 9.5 billion gallons per year, or about 10% of the total water they get from Lake Mead, by removing 3,900 acres of such grass. Because 90% of Nevada’s drinking water comes from Lake Mead, an artificial reservoir built behind Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, the Southern Nevada Water authority had spent decades and billions of dollars on building a new intake. Just last week, with the water level dropping to record lows, the original intake was exposed.
Literally 1984 Urinetown. I had seen articles about how Lake Mead has dropped below the water intakes and about the new intakes that they’re using. What other ways are there to save water?
Headline: Virus found in pig heart used in human transplant Byline: Lauran Neergaard Date of Publication: May 5 2021 Source: AP News Link: https://apnews.com/article/science-health-university-of-maryland-heart-transplants-8d615a31b455a8e36d3b6896ebe8813a
The researchers who performed the first semi-successfull pig heart transplant announced that they had found the DNA of a virus, porcine cytomegalovirus, in the heart. However, they could not find any evidence that this virus was causing an active infection, despite the fact that David Bennet, the patient who received the heart, died to infection-like symptoms two months after the transplant. Provided by a company called Revivicor, the pig used had been genetically modified and specially raised to prevent infection, and it had passed the screenings required by the FDA. Dr. Bartley Griffith, the surgeon responsible for the transplant, said that the virus may have been latent, but nevertheless, the University of Maryland announced they would investigate and look into developing more sophisticated tests for these kind of viruses.
It was nice to see an update/progress being made on a story that we had covered in class. When will we find out what happened and how to fix it?
Headline: Author’s plagiarism essay pulled after more plagiarism found Byline: Hillel Italie Date of Publication: May 9, 2022 Source: AP News Link: https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-ae11a7583e21b30d8fb9f67507ab8887
LitHub pulled Jumi Bello’s essay, “I Plagiarized Parts of My Debut Novel. Here’s Why,” from their publication after it was found that Bello also plagiarized parts of that essay which explained the history of plagiarism. The publication’s editor, Jonny Diamond, announced Monday that “because of inconsistencies in the story and, crucially, a further incident of plagiarism in the published piece, we decided to pull the essay.” The original novel which prompted the essay, “The Leaving,” which was scheduled to be published in July, was cancelled by the publisher, Riverhead Books, after the plagiarism was discovered in February. In her apology/explanation essay, Bello had explained the pressures she felt to plagiarize in order to write her debut novel.
I thought that this situation was hilariously meta: Plagiarizing a piece about the history of plagiarism while apologizing for previous plagiarism. Why would she do this? How did she think this was a good idea?
Headline: While Building a House, They Dug Up a Chamber for Ancient Gods Byline: Jennifer Pinkowski Date of Publication: May 12, 2022 Source: NYT Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/12/science/turkey-chamber-assyrian.html
Archaeologists are excavating a newly rediscovered 2,800-year-old complex found by a Turkish homeowner in 2017. After they had discovered this ancient Neo-Assyrian panel with images of gods and goddesses, the owners of the house kept it secret and attempted to find buyers, but they were caught and arrested after circulating photos of the art. Now, the owners are living in the house, though it may soon be demolished to make way for excavation efforts. Excavation has been temporarily paused as archaeologists wait for the underground chamber to be stabilized, as there is a risk that it would collapse. In a study published Wednesday, historians noted the historical importance of this find, as it is one of the earliest depictions of the goddess Atargatis in the area, and it is also the earliest example of an Aramaic inscription on rock.
I chose this because it’s a pretty rare historical find, and the human interest the homeowners who tried to hide it was strong. Do you think they really had a chance in selling this ancient chamber on the black market?
Headline: Grubhub offered free lunches in New York City. That’s when the chaos began Byline: Manuela López Restrepo Date of Publication: May 18, 2022 Source: NPR Link: https://www.npr.org/2022/05/18/1099820684/grubhub-new-york-free-lunch-promo-backfires
GrubHub faced dropped orders and hours-long backlogs after a surge in demand when they offered a free $15 credit for New Yorkers at lunchtime Tuesday. Orders peaked at 6,000 orders per minute, and the chaos culminated in the GrubHub app crashing. One restaurant interviewed said that the demand that day was even greater than the demand they saw during the super bowl, but they were unable to fulfill some orders because they were not informed by GrubHub ahead of time and thus did not have enough staff working at that time. Given the general chaos and poorly handled logistics, there was a mismatch between orders and drivers, leading some meals to be wasted when no drivers were available.
The headline caught my attention; What hidden systems do we depend on, and how do we better communicate?
Headline: Boeing’s Starliner Reaches Space Station Some 2 Years After Planned Visit Byline: Kenneth Chang Date of Publication: 2022-05-20 Source: NYT Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/science/starliner-boeing-nasa-dock.html
Boeing’s Starliner has docked with the International Space Station (ISS) for the first time on Friday, delivering 800 pounds of cargo. Starliner, along with SpaceX’s Dragon, is part of NASA’s effort to develop reliable launch providers to replace the space shuttle and Russian Soyuz. After 2 failed attempts at a ISS docking in 2019, Starliner has finally succeeded, and Boeing hopes to have its first crewed flight by the end of the year. Currently, Starliner launches atop United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V, which relies on Russian RD-180 engines. Because of a 2016 senate bill require those engines to be phased out, they will eventually have to transition to Vulcan, but that rocket has yet to finish development and meet the safety requirements for crewed flight.
I watch Scott Manley and this is a pretty important development. When we see a finished Starliner, and how will it compare to Dragon?
Headline: The Curious Hole in My Head Byline: Helen Santoro Date of Publication: Sept. 4, 2022 Source: NYT Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/04/science/brain-language-research.html
The author, Helen Santoro, describes her experience suffering a perinatal stroke and participating in studies throughout her childhood. Missing her front temporal lobe, an area responsible for language, doctors thought that she would have difficulty speaking and develop various disabilities. To their surprise, Santoro seems to develop perfectly normally, something that is rare but not unheard of. After hearing of a research project into interesting brains led by Dr. Evelina Fedorenko, she volunteered to participate and undergo scanning. Again to everyone’s surprise, her brain still seems to have rewired to use the left lobe for language processing instead of shifting to rely on the right hemisphere.
I chose this article because I thought this case study was interesting and unique/unexpected. How can we be sure certain parts of the brain correspond to certain things?
I still think about the study I was in as a young child and about all of the other kids whose perinatal strokes had left many of them severely disabled. For some mysterious reason, my brain evolved around its missing lobe, whereas theirs struggled to do so. Why wasn’t I born with the developmental and cognitive problems, and they were? Why did my left side rewire to give me the syllables, words and phrases that have so enriched my life?
Headline: The Rise and Fall of Vibes-Based Literacy Byline: Jessica Winter Date of Publication: September 1, 2022 Source: The New Yorker Link: https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/the-rise-and-fall-of-vibes-based-literacy?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Even with widespread academic consensus, New York is just now on the verge of transitioning away from “balanced literacy” in favor of phonics-based, “language-as-a-science” instruction. Balanced literacy, or the “whole-language movement,” was based on the idea children will learn the language best through silent practice of reading rather than being forced to learn the details of letters and phonics, which proponents claimed children will find uninteresting and difficult. However, this course of study, which was developed by Lucy Calkins in Units of Study at Teacher’s College, only works for a minority of children who already have easy access to suitable books and parents who can spend time reading to them. Others are incentivized to fake it through “vibes-based reading,” or guessing at the words from other context clues like pictures and patterns in the language rather than the word itself. (For example: Learn to fill in the blank of predictable sentences like “Look at blank” from pictures). Yet, although there was already a consensus that a strong foundation in phonetics is necessary to learn reading well, “Units of Study” was nevertheless implemented in the early 2000s and has stuck around until now, a similar dynamic to that of climate scientists and climate deniers.
I’ve always thought that the different ways people teach/learn are fascinating, especially with Mr. Hurshman talking of routine vs. transformative and grade-oriented vs. learning-oriented classes. Can this be read as a failure of a “transformative” or “learning-oriented” system? If so, what needs to be changed for such “transformative” and “learning-oriented” systems to work?
But literacy rates remain dismal: as of 2019, only about forty-seven per cent of the city’s students in grades three through eight were considered proficient in reading, according to state exams, including just thirty-five per cent of Black students and less than thirty-seven per cent of Hispanic students.
Headline: Gen Z Never Learned to Read Cursive Byline: Drew Gilpin Faust Date of Publication: September 16, 2022 Source: The Atlantic Link: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/10/gen-z-handwriting-teaching-cursive-history/671246/
In her college level Civil War history course, Faust was surprised to discover that 2/3 of her class couldn’t even read cursive, and fewer could write it. Cursive was removed from the common core K-12 curriculum in 2010, and without the ability to read cursive, students in her class commonly changed their theses to rely more on published sources rather than cursive primary sources that they couldn’t decipher. Faust argues that although the loss of cursive had been imminent ever since the introduction of the typewriter obsoleted it, people nevertheless are in some sense losing literacy and connection with the past and disempowering themselves in the process.
I went to Stratford, where cursive was taught in 2nd grade, and there was a requirement to write all essays in cursive through 4th grade. In 5th grade, they dropped that requirement and cursive just disappeared, so I thought this was an interesting perspective.
In 2016, Louisiana’s state senators reminded their constituents that the Declaration of Independence had been written in cursive and cried out “America!” as they unanimously voted to restore handwriting instruction across the state.
https://www.blind-magazine.com/stories/is-the-dslr-going-extinct/?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Headline: ‘The biggest scandal in chess history’: Inside the cheating allegations that rocked the chess world Byline: Richard Hall Date of Publication: September 22, 2022 Source: The Independent Link: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/magnus-carlsen-cheating-scandal-chess-hans-niemann-b2176928.html
Ever since World Champion Magnus Carlsen lost to Hans Niemann at the Sinquefield Cup, cheating accusations have been flying wildly in the chess world, with absolutely no clarification in sight. At the tournament, Hans was the lowest-rated competitor, and his victory over Carlsen was a major upset. Immediately after his loss, Carlsen withdrew from the tournament, an unprecedented move, and tweeted that he could not speak because otherwise he would be in big trouble. Soon, this spawned rumors that Carlsen was accusing Hans of cheating, and chess fans and streamers rushed to scour the 19-year-old’s past games for any hint of engine use. However, both the Chief arbiter of the Sinquefield cup and a professor at MIT report that they can find no evidence of unfair play, and the consensus seems to be that Hans did not cheat at that particular tournament, though he has admitted to cheating in online games when he was younger.
I had heard about this chess drama because I was following chess and thought I’d share it.
Niemann had his own theory, positing in his post-match interview that Carlsen “was just so demoralized because he’s losing to an idiot like me. It must be embarrassing for the world champion to lose to me. I feel bad for him.”
Headline: The Thorny Problem of Keeping the Internet’s Time Byline: Nate Hopper Date of Publication: September 30, 2022 Source: The New Yorker Link: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-thorny-problem-of-keeping-the-internets-time
First developed in the 1970s and 80s with the advent of ARPANET, Network Time Protocol (NTP) is responsible for synchronizing the clocks of every computer. David Mills, the original author, is one of the few people who understand the complicated algorithms and math behind it, even as he becomes less and less involved in its ongoing development. As with much open-source software, there are only a handful of people who know the internals of the reference implementation, which is arguably bloated and contains much legacy code which is difficult to work with and refractor. Now, the committee behind its development is split on the version 5 draft, and vast swaths of the internet still run on version 3, with which the current version 4 is backwards-compatible. There are also security concerns, as NTP servers can be used to launch DDoS attacks with spoofed return IP addresses, and a new NTS (Network Time Security) standard is being proposed with TLS security to address these concerns.
https://www.sfgate.com/obscuresf/article/oldest-webcam-watches-san-francisco-17467544.php https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220927-italys-plan-to-save-venice-from-sinking?utm_source=pocket-newtab https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-richest-athlete-of-all-time-did-nothing-with-his-wealth-and-vanished-into-history?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Headline: The Curious Case of Norway’s Disturbing Demon Wall Byline: Gemma Tarlach Date of Publication: October 13, 2022 Source: Atlas Obscura Link: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/demon-wall-norway
When Gerhard Gotaas was tasked with restoring a small village church in Sauherad in Norway, he made a concerning ‘discovery:’ figures of scowling demons appear in swarms as he paints lines following the faint traces he saw in the wall. With a secretive work style in which he preferred to work in solitude, Gotaas was a highly respected conservator in the 20th century, having faithfully completed numerous other notable projects. Yet, by the end of his two years working on the church, the resulting demon wall was immediately subject to questions about its authenticity. In light of the events of World War II, however, this minor controversy was quickly forgotten, but now it has been discovered that Gottas had painted over the original art that had been on the wall, filling it instead with a completely fictitious ‘demon wall.’ No other work of Gottas has had its authenticity called into question, so the fact that Gottas claimed to have been following lines and the crowded nature of the art (horror vacui) gave rise to speculation that Gottas may have been schizophrenic. However, his son and his other work attest to his skill and there is no evidence for any theory, leaving the reason behind the demon wall unknowable.
I’m interested in conservation, and this story started off concerning like a true crime report, but by the end I was wondering what happened more like a mystery novel. So what really happened?
Headline: Inside the World’s Largest Digital Camera Byline: Andy Altman Date of Publication: Oct 23, 2022 Source: CNET Link: https://www.cnet.com/science/inside-the-worlds-largest-digital-camera/?utm_source=pocket-newtab
The LSST (Legacy Survey of Space and Time) Camera will break records with its five-foot lens. It is being built at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and once in operation, it will be able to image a section of the sky that is seven times the area of the moon every 15 seconds. The camera itself is 3,200 megapixels, and will be part of a new telescope at the Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile. Every night, the telescope will be able to take a full 3d panorama of the night sky. With this new capability, astronomers will be able to track long-term trends and discover new phenomena that were previously undetectable.
Headline: English Is Not Normal Byline: John McWhorter Date of Publication: November 13, 2015 Source: Aeon Link: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/english-is-not-normal
The history of English, which was developed as Britain was invaded again and again, has resulted in a language with a great diversity in vocabulary and syntax. It stands out as an outlier due to the lasting influence of native Celtic languages, using the verb do in weird ways: I do see. I do not see. Do I see? Celtic numbers can also be seen in phrases like “hickory dickory dock” (8, 9, 10) or “eeny, meeny, miney, moe” (1, 2, 3, 4). It also dangles prepositions at the end of relative clauses instead of placing them next to the relative pronoun they govern: where other languages would say “From which town do you come?” it is more natural to say “Which town do you come from?” in English. This odd feature is a symptom of the Viking invasions of Britain, when invaders applied the syntax of their Scandinavian languages to Old English. Loan words from German, Latin, or French can be found in various phrases: kingly (English), royal (French), regal (Latin); help (English), aid (French), assist (Latin).
I’m kinda a linguistics nerd, and I take latin so I thought this article would be right up my alley. What are the effects of this melting pot of influence on English? Are there any?
Headline: How One Programmer Broke the Internet By Deleting a Tiny Piece of Code Byline: Keith Collins Date of Publication: March 26, 2016. Source: Quartz Link: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-one-programmer-broke-the-internet-by-deleting-a-tiny-piece-of-code?utm_source=pocket-newtab
The npm left-pad incident. By deleting 12 lines of code, 28-year-old Azer Koçulu bricked many important packages, including react-js and Facebook’s javascript libraries. Although the package was gone only for a grand total of a few hours, the error of npm ERR! 404 'left-pad' is not in the npm-registry was met by thousands of javascript developers. After a dispute with kik, a messaging app, over the name of his open-source package, intended to help provide templates for developers’ projects, Koculu decided to delete all of his packages from npm, who had taken the side of the messaging app company, who owned the trademark for kik.
I thought the entire infrastructure of the internet all being so interdependent was concerning and that some tiny change could propagate so catastrophically was interesting.
Headline: The Great Purpling Byline: byline Date of Publication: dateofpub Source: businessinsider Link: https://www.businessinsider.com/led-city-streetlights-turning-purple-broken-tech-danger-2022-11?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Acuity’s LED lights are starting to turn purple or violet because of the way the lights work. The company is replacing them under warranty, but yeah. {Why I chose it, why i found it compelling/important. 1-2 sentences}
Headline: Best of CES 2023 Byline: adriana morga Date of Publication: Jan 3, 2023 Source: ap news Link: https://apnews.com/article/technology-science-business-sony-corp-consumer-electronics-show-fa9a53988c69f56439866b7ecd301505
{Summary: 100-150 words, with 5 Ws and H} {Why I chose it, why i found it compelling/important. 1-2 sentences}
Headline: headline Byline: byline Date of Publication: dateofpub Source: source Link: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-richest-athlete-of-all-time-did-nothing-with-his-wealth-and-vanished-into-history?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Over the course of his charioteering career, Gaius Appuleius Diocles amassed nearly 36 million sesterces, or around 26,000 kilograms of gold, now worth $12.7 billion. Coming from a wealthy family, he was expected to take over his father’s shipping business but instead found his way to Rome’s Circus Maximus, where he captivated audiences with his dramatic racing style.
{Why I chose it, why i found it compelling/important. 1-2 sentences}
Headline: headline Byline: byline Date of Publication: dateofpub Source: source Link: https://www.npr.org/2023/01/29/1152149068/marie-kondo-revealed-shes-kind-of-given-up-on-being-so-tidy-people-freaked-out
After having 3 kids, Marie Kondo, creator of the KonMari method, reveals that she has kind of given up on her method of keeping tidy. Her self-help book, titled The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, was a smashing success in 2010 and 2014, and Kondo has said that her teachings about keeping tidy were based off of the philosophy of shintoism.
I only knew her from the “this does not spark joy” meme.
Headline: The Sudden, Lucrative Gold Rush for Old Music Byline: Andy Greene, Kory Grow Date of Publication: July 8 2021 Source: The Rolling Stone Link: https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/classic-rock-biopics-holograms-catalogs-1172087/
Monetizing old music as old rock stars get too old to tour: Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road tour.
Biopics: Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman: 100s of millions - billions
{Why I chose it, why i found it compelling/important. 1-2 sentences}
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/hate-music-spotify-hitler-radio-1234689239/
Headline: Biofoul: The Stowaway Turning Dream Cruises into Trips to Nowhere Byline: Natasha Frost Date of Publication: January 20, 2023 Source: New York Times Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/20/travel/cruise-delays-biofoul-new-zealand.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Several luxury cruise liners, including the Regent Seven Seas Explorer, have been unable to dock in New Zealand due to failing the country’s strict biosecurity laws. New Zealand is known for its efforts to protect its unique ecosystem, and this includes strict regulations on what can enter the country, including restrictions on passengers bringing meat or vegetable products. However, fighting off invasions at sea has required a different approach, as marine organisms can hitch a ride either in the ballast water of ships or by clinging to their exteriors, where they are known as biofoul. Despite a global agreement on how to handle organisms in ballast water, no such agreement exists for biofoul, allowing countries to set their own policies. As a result, cruise liners have been forced to spend days at sea undergoing a painstaking cleaning process before they are allowed to dock in New Zealand. The incidents have been a blow to passengers who have spent tens of thousands of dollars and awaited the cruise for years.
I had recently started watching a bunch of aviation and shipping YouTube (Casual Navigation) and I thought this was an interesting consideration that might not have been an obvious problem at first. Will we need a TSA/customs check for the ships themselves in the future?
Headline: Atop an Underwater Hot Spring, an ‘Octopus Garden’ Thrives
Byline: Katrina Miller
Date of Publication: August 23 2023
Source: NYT
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/23/science/biology-octopus-garden.html?searchResultPosition=1
A team of biologists published a paper on Wednesday detailing the behavior of octopuses congregating out hot springs to reproduce. Previously thought to be primarily solitary creatures, octopuses brooding together had never been studied closely before. On an expedition with an ROV in 2018, however, Amanda Kahn and her team discovered a group of around 20,000 octopuses near the base of Davidson Seamount, an underwater volcano off the coast of California. The female octopuses have nested on top of a hydrothermal spring, where water temperatures can reach up to 52 degrees Fahrenheit, much warmer than the 35 degrees typical of cold ocean. These higher temperatures allow eggs to hatch within 2 years where it would usually take 5-10 years in colder water. (During those years, the females assiduously guard their eggs, neither eating nor moving until their eggs hatch, at which point they promptly die)
Great Beatles reference, and octopuses are some cool creatures. I hope we learn cool stuff like this in Bio.
Headline: Seen From Close Up: How the U.S. Open Dials In Its Court Speed Byline: Helmuth Rosales and Geoff Macdonald Date of Publication: Sep 2 2023 Source: NYT Link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/09/02/sports/tennis/us-open-tennis-court-speed.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Tennis tournaments need to play close attention to the very surfaces that their games are played on. The courts are precisely engineered so that the ball will bounce back with a specific amount of friction and restitution, or how much energy is lost to the court after each bounce. With a cannon that fires a ball against the surface at a specific angle and a box to measure the balls exact trajectory, the “speed” surfaces is rated as somewhere between slow and fast. The speed of the court sets the pace of the game, and different tournaments will use different surface types and different speeds. On harder, faster better stronger courts, a good offense is key, while effective defense dominates the slower, softer courts. Other adjustments are being made to the courts, such as adding sand on top of the lines so that the ball does not slide on the paint.
The photos in the story were very cool, and they used a really cool device to take them. It used a gel that deformed when it was pressed against the court, and it was “seeing” with its touch to an accuracy within 1 micron. Also the amount of thought and effort put into this very niche things is amazing.
Headline: Deprogramming the Cult of the Workplace Personality Test Byline: Chris Bourn Date of Publication: June 19, 2019 Source: MEL Magazine Link: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/deprogramming-the-cult-of-the-workplace-personality-test?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us&access_token=152eb67e-9b52-0361-add7-992794&type=login&id=fYTT3A40g3777pHj50d48e4d73p4g3fR303U51HobdINHWRdSf803nlhw00ySfu5&guid=9a9T1A9bg78b4X6468d6a6cB2dp9y6918f3y3fjT86Qeb8P9822dkn83v1egV83f
The common workplace personality tests are no good. In one case, a test was based on Gaelin’s theory of the 4 humors: bile, phlegm, blood, and black bile. The most famous and successful test too, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, also has its issues, having been invented by some homeschooled random. The scientist on whose ideas this test was based has criticized it, as it is an all-or-nothing test with only a few discrete categories and always positive language. Other tests are based on discredited theories of how the left and right hemispheres of the brain work, but nevertheless remain very popular with huge corporations today. In some cases, legal action has been taken up by the candidates fired and hired according to these practices, and one test was even shown to be quantitatively incorrect in 6 out of 10 cases.
We just watched Gattaca and the movie was even mentioned in this article. This sort of pseudoscience that is so widespread but not questioned is so interesting.
Headline: A 639-Year Concert, With No Intermission for Coronavirus
Byline: Catherine Hickley
Date of Publication: 2020 09 07
Source: NYT
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/07/arts/music/john-cage-as-slow-as-possible-germany.html?searchResultPosition=1
In Halberstadt, Germany, the St. Burchardi church is still hosting a concert performing just one piece: John Cage’s Organ^2/ASLSP. The piece started performance in 2002, and it will not end until 2640. The piece was composed in 1987, and was originally meant to be performed with piano before being reworked for organ. The tempo marking is “as slowly as possible,” and the tempo limitations present on piano are not present on organ, which can sustain notes indefinitely. The performance is instead limited by the expected lifespan of the organ, 639 years, after the oldest still surviving keyboard organ. The 14th chord change occurred in 2020, and the previous chord had been sounding since 2013. In 2020, a G# and an E were added to the C, D flat, D sharp, A sharp, and E. The foundation that runs this art project is always limited by money, and they raise funds by selling years to visitors, who would buy the years with special significance to them and keep the performance going.
I knew about John Cage’s 4’33 and I think this idea of long-time art is really cool. The concrete pillar pyramid thing and poem on a road are also really cool. They’re just really cool ways of thinking about human endeavor really.